Features

Dr Norman Doidge has travelled the world meeting people who have healed themselves using neuroplasticity—the brain’s ability to change in response to stimuli and experience. He told Lynne Malcolm how the concept may change the way we treat everything from ADD to Parkinson’s.

In the early 1990s a team of neuroscientists reported a new class of brain cells in the macaque monkey and the mirror neuron theory took off. It's been used to explain many aspects of what it is to be human, including empathy, imitation and even autism. Lynne Malcolm explores whether it’s a theory that has been oversold.

For years depression has been seen as a biological condition, with medication commonly prescribed. However, drugs don't suit everyone and now researchers are trying a range of different approaches to treat depression, from clinical hypnosis to brain stimulation. Lynne Malcolm reports.

Deep brain stimulation has been used for more than 25 years to treat conditions ranging from epilepsy to Parkinson's disease, but it's a mechanism that is still not well understood. Surgeons have likened it to deep space exploration, as Lynne Malcolm and Katie Silver write.

Borderline personality disorder is one of the most stigmatised mental illnesses; often doctors are afraid to treat patients who they regard as confronting, and with little chance of recovery. Now a new group of therapies is slowly changing that, as Lynne Malcolm reports.

For centuries, western medicine has discounted the connection between the mind and body when it comes to health. Now, growing scientific evidence suggests that the mind can play a powerful role in healing, as Lynne Malcolm and Katie Silver report.

Imagine losing your mind and not knowing if you were going to get it back. That’s what happened to New Yorker Susannah Cahalan. Initially diagnosed with bipolar disorder, it took a renowned medical sleuth to discover the bizarre truth about her condition, write Lynne Malcolm and Katie Silver.

Have you ever been aware that you’re in a dream? That sensation is called lucid dreaming, and scientists have found that it can be learned. Better still, it is thought that lucid dreaming can help people overcome fears, enhance their creativity and improve their waking lives. Lynne Malcolm and Katie Silver report.

Smartphones are being used to research and manipulate dreams, with studies suggesting that the nature of our dreams can impact the quality of our waking hours. Lynne Malcolm takes a look at whether dream therapy could one day help treat depression and other mood disorders.

Author Rupert Isaacson has pioneered the Horse Boy method, an alternative treatment for autistic children which involves getting them to interact with horses. Scientists and autism campaigners, however, say the method is unscientific, unproven and peddling false hope. Lynne Malcolm and Diane Deane report.

Special Features

Human beings have a very special relationship with music. Right from the start it has a role in the formation of identity, can both stimulate our thoughts and help in recovering from distress. All in the Mind has a collection of various aspects of music and the brain.

Melissa was in her early teens when she first began to sense something wasn't quite right with her hearing. Years later she read a magazine article about a condition called misophonia, which described exactly how she was feeling.